Macau

Saturday was spent in Macau, another Special Administrative Region that didn't require an additional visa but did get our passports stamped several times (oh yea). Our group started out as 20, but by the end of the day it had been cut down to roughly 12. You win some you lose some, ya know?


We rode the MTR down to Central where we got off and walked dow to the ferry station. The plan was to take the TurboJet from Hong Kong Island to Macau. The TurboJet is basically an airplane on the water; the interior and accomodations reminded us of our trip over to Hong Kong from the States.

We had taken the 12:30 departure and arrived around 1:30. When we arrived, we basically chartered 2 mini-buses for the day for about $70 HK per person (about $9 US). First stop: Restaurante Fernando, supposedly a must dine Portugese place in the area. It was adjacent to a black sand beach as well.

It was worthy of the babble. Maybe I haven't had a lot of steak, but the steak, with eggs and potato wedges, was the most tender, mouth-watering piece of meat I have ever sunk my teeth into. I kid you not, it was culinary perfection as far as I was concerned.

From there we were bused to a temple that was tiered into the side of a steep hill. Much incense was burning and there were fireworks for sale, chinese firecrackers at that.

Then we went to blank blank....It overlooked a very European looking street and section of town. Although I've never been to Europe, it is what I would imagine a street would look like there.

The Macau Tower was next on the list of things to do. The Tower reminded us of Seattle's Space Needle and is 338 meters high - not too shabby. There was actually the opportunity to jump off it on a sort of vertical zipline but I opted to come back some other time to do it, as it was cloudy and dark already and would rather pay $600 HK (about $85 US) on a clear day to get the full experience.

We then went to the Sands Casino (gambling is a main thing that Macao is known for) and I blew about $100 HK ('bout 12 bucks) on the dollar slot machines. I really have no desire whatsoever to gamble anymore, unless I could learn how to count cards; then, I might be interested. Other than that, it seems pretty stupid and meaningless.

We took the TurboJet to Kowloon and got back to the dorms at about 1-1:30. We all had an enjoyable day and our passports are fuller for it - always a good thing. And I still have essentially 2 more days of weekend left (class: Tuesday-Thursday + 1 short class on Monday mornings; free time: Friday-Monday, baby!)

Macao: check!